Which religion is the right one for you?

You scored as Christianity. Your views are most similar to those of Christianity. Do more research on Christianity and possibly consider being baptized and accepting Jesus, if you aren't already Christian. Christianity is the second of the Abrahamic faiths; it follows Judaism and is followed by Islam. It differs in its belief of Jesus, as not a prophet nor historical figure, but as God in human form. The Holy Trinity is the concept that God takes three forms: the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Ghost (sometimes called Holy Spirit). Jesus taught the idea of instead of seeking revenge, one should love his or her neighbors and enemies. Christians believe that Jesus died on the cross to save humankind and forgive people's sins. Christianity 92% Judaism 46% Buddhism 38% Islam 33% Paganism 21% atheism 17% Hinduism 8% agnosticism 0% Satanism 0% Which religion is the right one for you? created with QuizFarm.com

Which theologian are you?

You scored as Anselm. Anselm is the outstanding theologian of the medieval period.He sees man's primary problem as having failed to render unto God what we owe him, so God becomes man in Christ and gives God what he is due. You should read 'Cur Deus Homo?' Anselm 93% Jonathan Edwards 87% Martin Luther 80% Charles Finney 67% Jorgen Moltmann 67% Karl Barth 60% John Calvin 33% Augustine 33% Paul Tillich 7% Friedrich Schleiermacher 0% Which theologian are you? created with QuizFarm.com

social stories part II

well, it was a busy day of learning. I had a whole lot of fun meeting new people, and even meeting a couple of people I hadn't seen in ages. Boy, does it seem that ASD (autistic spectrum disorders) are contagious or something, because so many people I have had contact with have children who have one. I met a woman today, who I hadn't seen in around 7 years, and scary, but her son James has Aspergers. It was great to catch up with her, especially since Hope went to preschool with James.

I have learnt heaps of information about writing social stories, and most of it was very helpful indeed! It made me feel less alone in my struggles with Aimee. I now just need some time to process the information learned.

After the course finished, and since I was in Papakura anyway, I visited an old friend (one that I have been very lax with - hadn't seen her since October) and had a really good chin-wag!

It was the first day in ages that I hadn't spent with my girls, and surprise surprise I realised I miss them - they are great girls and were very good for their Dad today. Sometimes they make me feel like the proudest Mum on earth!

Now, it's time to go off to cell-group and to debrief about today's course with my good friend Jo. Her daughter has aspergers also - see told you it was contagious;)

social stories

I have been given the opportunity to do a course on social stories. This is right after Melva recommended we do one for Aimee to use for Cession Kids Programme. God works in mysterious ways...

I only found out about the course last night and it is for today - so we quickly arranged a way for me to do it. Jonathan is going to have the two girls at work with him this morning and is taking Aimee to her counselling appointment this afternoon - just so I can go to this course. He is so wonderful, and we are so lucky that he can do this!

I have been wanting to find out how to write/make social stories for Aimee as I have heard how helpful they can be for children with autistic spectrum disorders. We have used homemade "comic-strips" for Aimee before, but this could be even better. So, yes, I am excited, because I am always trying to find ways in which to make doing life easier for her.

This is such an answer to prayer - THANKS GOD! :D

So, I will blog about how it went later on today or tomorrow.

biblegateway

I have just re-discovered this really AWESOME website - it has many bible versions (even audio!) and it's searchable. It's been a while since I went to this site and it was well worth a re-visit. It even has bible reading plans.

LOST!

I love Psalm 23 - it is kinda popular - with funerals and all, but what I like about it is that it's written in allegory, which is a form of writing I use A LOT to explain things. :)

David, has one great admirer in me, he was a shepherd himself before he became king of Israel, and so he fully understood the concept of shepherd and sheep when he wrote this psalm. It's great when you can write and share from a perspective of knowledge.

Sheep are animals that require a shepherd. Without the shepherd, they can't find food, can't protect themselves from predators (they're everywhere), and generally find it extremely easy to get Lost. I have even heard it said sheep are stupid.

Hmmmm, sounding familiar to anyone? We humans can be pretty sheep-like at times. God is most definately like the shepherd in our lives. He guides us, looks out for us, provides for us, protects us, even finds us when we are lost (something I truelly appreciate coz' without God I would be the one who is very LOST!)

Finding your spiritual home... {struggles}

How is it that you can know where you should form community with other believers? This is something I am currently struggling with. Should you look for the perfect church? I know the answer to that one - mainly because I am imperfect and anything that is perfect would become the opposite as soon as I joined. :} I am pondering these things because my family and I have been "attending" a New Life church on Sunday mornings and Cession in the evenings. I have been through all the membership groups at New Life, just haven't taken the plunge yet to become a member. What does membership of this particular church mean to me anyways? I would like to believe that I am a member of believers in Christ, not one particular denomination. And so the thought process goes...

My daughter, the one with Asperger's Syndrome, seems to enjoy Cession more, where she can attend Sunday School (at the moment anyway). She can't attend the New Life Sunday School - she can't cope well with the noise and amount of people, she tries to run away etc. :( I like to think that Jesus loves my daughter even though the rest of us struggle with her behaviour. I just want her to be accepted by the church. I also want to make church a priority in my life, and Aimee can make this difficult, because Sunday mornings are spent worrying about what she is doing or may be about to do - I feel as if I am on eggshells and I can't concentrate on learning anything from the sermon. I love Aimee - it can't be that difficult for others to do so also... or is it too much to ask?

spiritual milk

When we first come to the Lord we are re-born spiritually and like newborn babies need to drink milk (that is the word of God). Something I learned when I was breastfeeding my girls, was that they needed long feeds every four hours or so, if you let them snack all they would get was the fore-milk and none of the hind-milk which is where all the nutrients lie. I think this can relate to this scripture, in that, when we crave something we want it all the time, the craving consumes us. We just HAVE to have it. So it should be with God's word - as if we need it for our very existance. [And we may very well need it for that!] It's the only way we can work out our salvation - understand and work through our thoughts on it.

As you move on with your relationship with God, and your first love for him wanes - we need to remember that fore-milk doesn't satisfy - it's the hind-milk that does. In other words, we need to still spend time in His word. 10 minutes here and there means we are only getting colostrum and not the satisfying hind-milk (we are only snacking).

I am totally speaking to myself here. I would love to get back to the "honey-moon" feelings I had for God and have just had a "light-bulb" moment! In the "honey-moon" phase of any relationship you want to spend every day-light (& night-time) moment with the person of your affection. You crave moments with them. I believe that to get back to that "first-love" with God you only have to spend time in His word, meditating on it and in prayer, thinking about Him. It's that simple a concept.

"time-out"

it has been said that there is great wisdom in the bible - this is definately one of those times... the girls and i are memorising this verse - it's a goodie (hence putting it here to share with everyone who wanders upon my blog!)

it is so easy to fly off the handle and freak out about things when what it is we need to do is to take a "time-out" and be silent. ponder the reason why you are angry. it is too easy to be loud when you are angry, but it is important to realise the value of silence. what a lesson - God condones time-out's! :D

undercoverwear party

I went to my very first undercoverwear party last night. Now, I have nothing against these kind of parties. I have been to my fair share of tupperware parties, and am soon to attend a linen party in a week or so, but, I was SHOCKED! The language quickly deteriorated into gutter-type lingo, and being that the party had mainly "christian" attendee's that I thought were completely straight and narrow types - I was surprised at how quickly it turned into a taudry affair. Oh well, remind me not to go again...

The clothes were great, if not a tad too expensive for me. So I don't hold it against the company at all, I just know that I could've spent my Thursday evening doing something a whole load better!

whats jesus up to

Just take a look at this really cool blog that has just emerged today from the recesses of some guy's (I know who you are!) mind...

Does he have nothing better to do with his time? Or is it as I suspect, a great way to make us all smile :)

muse

v. mused, mus·ing, mus·es

v. intr.
To be absorbed in one's thoughts; engage in meditation.

v. tr.
To consider or say thoughtfully: mused that it might take longer to drive than walk.

n.
A state of meditation.

google:dione

Googling my name under images was a really interesting exercise. I discovered my name is used for one of Saturn's moon's, Dione was the mother of Aphrodite, it's the name for a butterfly or two and a snake, people name their boats after Dione and the list goes on... Try it yourself if you're ever bored with nothing much else to do with your time... There's even a typeface called Dione. Hmmmm! It looks great too!

Which Desperate Housewife are you?

Which Desperate Housewife are you?

Congratulations! You are Bree Van De Kamp, the Martha Stewart on steroids, whose family is about to mutiny.
Take this quiz!

Funny, huh!

Happy Anniversary baby - got you on my mind!

It was our wedding anniversary on Saturday! 11 years of wedded bliss, well, maybe not all bliss, but the longer we are married I have noticed that the good times always outweigh the bad. These years have been the happiest, best years in my life. Jonathan completes me, he is my BEST friend, my companion, my lover, my encourager, the best dad our girls could ever have. I love you Jonathan!

As·per·ger's syndrome

I have just stolen a blog entry from my husband's blog "my faith", because it is about our middle daughter Aimee and how he views her "special needs". I believe it is important, not only because his views are valid, but also because I have never heard them before.

Life sometimes appears to be controlled by what Aimee can or can't do, what other people will think etc. She doesn't fit into society's perfect image of perfect child (does any child ever anyway?!) We love her to bits, she has and continues to show us more and more of God's love for us - her unconditional love, loyalty, sense of justice and truth motivates us to become better people.

Anyway, take a few moment's to read my wonderful husband's thoughts:-

"As·per·ger's syndrome

Main Entry: As·per·ger's syndrome
Pronunciation: 'äs-"p&r-g&rz-
Variant: also As·per·ger syndrome /-g&r/
Function: noun
: a developmental disorder characterized by impaired social and occupational skills, by normal language and cognitive development, and by restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities often with above average performance in a narrow field against a general background of deficient functioning called also Asperger's disorder
As·per·ger /'äs-"per-g&r/, Hans, 20th-century Austrian psychiatrist. Asperger first described the syndrome that bears his name in an article published in 1944.

My middle daughter lives with Asperger’s Syndrome. Anyone who knows me, or has met my family will probably already know this.

If you meet my daughter, you might figure out something’s not quite right in the first 5 minutes, or it may take many months. It all depends on the day really. Some will never get it – they’ll just put it down to a badly behaved child, whose parents don’t discipline their kids.

Some people who have known my daughter for a long time want to believe that it’s brain damage (mental disorders have such a bad name for themselves), others think we should ask for drugs to help make her normal.

It’s that last comment that always gets me thinking. I mean what the hell is normal any way?

I have a theory, and I’ll be honest and say that it’s not a very solid theory (I’ll let you be the judge of that), as it’s only based on my observations of my daughter, and to some extent her best friend (who also lives with AS).

The thing with my daughter is that she has an amazing capacity to love, to forgive and to feel empathy for others. She has tremendous difficulty lying – the only times we find her lying is when she’s trying to get her sisters out of trouble.

But as mentioned above in the definition of AS, she also has impaired social skills. For one she’s far to trusting, loves almost everyone she meets, immediately. She knows no social boundaries or personal space and when she gets stressed out she seeks solace in solitude and the occasional DVD.

What stresses her out? Crowds, noise and in-justice.

So what’s my theory?

My theory is that it’s not my daughter that struggles to fit into society; it’s society that struggles to fit my daughter. You see I’m beginning to believe that maybe God intended us to all live with the joys of AS, that it’s only as society has grow and become consumer focussed that AS has become a mental disorder. It’s only as society falls further away from God that we turn our back on people who have this unconditional love. This innocent wonder. This desire to see justice.

My theory continues, along the lines that God intended us to experience AS. My theory continues along this line because I know where the perfect place for my daughter to live is. It’s in the Garden of Eden.

You see she loves animals. Animals have a calming effect, whilst also getting her excited (I know I just contradicted my self, but it’s true). And living in that wonderful place with only the animals, the man of her dreams (no crowds) and God.

That’s right, my daughter loves God, she just finds it difficult to find a place of worship that accepts her for who she is (we recently have found a place) but in the Garden, she could have called out to God and he would have played with her, rolling around in the grass tickling her. He would have loved her sense of humour (she has a great one!) and most importantly understood that everything she did, was coming from a point of love.

I’m not sure why I’m writing this – it’s probably spurred by a recent incident that she witnessed where an authority figure encouraged her and others to bully someone – she was the only one to refuse. It caused her much emotional pain. I’ve been mulling it over in my mind today, and just can’t seem to get sleep, so I figured I’d start writing and see what came out.

That’s all. If you read this, leave a comment, tell me what you think and more importantly tell me what you feel.

12:33 AM | Permalink"

scrapping perfection...

I created my first ever scrap-booking page last night...

What elation to finally complete one, you see, I have spent the past six months preparing for the moment, purchased all the equipment, blocks, tools, embellishments etc. and then I became scared to actually "start" - performance anxiety in scrapping?!? What could be so scary about putting a photo on a piece of paper and adding crafty touches to said picture? Well, thinking on it, it could possibly have something to do with my struggle with perfectionism, my will to "get it right" that so pervades my life. But, then I had a revelation, it came to me, that I can't do well, without having tried, and maybe failed, a few times. So I bit the bullet and went over to visit a friend, who being in a similar situation to me, understood. We completed three pages between us, and had a great time doing it. :D It seems like I have been bit by the BUG!

Page One - by Dee (this is me and my good friend Jodee)

Page Two - by Dee (this is my sister Paula and her family)

Pretty good for a first go, huh! Even, if I must say so myself ;).

God & Prayer

God is in the business of answering prayers...

It's an interesting thing to think about really - but, yes, He really is interested in us, in our lives, in our interests! Sometimes He say's no, sometimes yes, sometimes maybe, but He always answers.

lôrd

There are various Hebrew and Greek words so rendered.

(1.) Heb. Jehovah, has been rendered in the English Bible LORD, printed in small capitals. This is the proper name of the God of the Hebrews. The form "Jehovah" is retained only in Ex. 6:3; Ps. 83:18; Isa. 12:2; 26:4, both in the Authorized and the Revised Version.

(2.) Heb. 'adon, means one possessed of absolute control. It denotes a master, as of slaves (Gen. 24:14, 27), or a ruler of his subjects (45:8), or a husband, as lord of his wife (18:12). The old plural form of this Hebrew word is _'adonai_. From a superstitious reverence for the name "Jehovah," the Jews, in reading their Scriptures, whenever that name occurred, always pronounced it _'Adonai_.

(3.) Greek kurios, a supreme master, etc. In the LXX. this is invariably used for "Jehovah" and "'Adonai."

(4.) Heb. ba'al, a master, as having domination. This word is applied to human relations, as that of husband, to persons skilled in some art or profession, and to heathen deities. "The men of Shechem," literally "the baals of Shechem" (Judg. 9:2, 3). These were the Israelite inhabitants who had reduced the Canaanites to a condition of vassalage (Josh. 16:10; 17:13).

(5.) Heb. seren, applied exclusively to the "lords of the Philistines" (Judg. 3:3). The LXX. render it by satrapies. At this period the Philistines were not, as at a later period (1 Sam. 21:10), under a kingly government. (See Josh. 13:3; 1 Sam. 6:18.) There were five such lordships, viz., Gath, Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron.

Source: Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary

MATT REDMAN

Take a look at Matt Redman's website - he has some interesting stuff to say about the song "Blessed Be Your Name". :) + Loads of other cool worship stuff.

Let me be there

imagine if you will God singing this song to you, like He did to me this morning...

(Words & music by J. Rostill)
Wherever you go
Wherever you may wander in your life
Well surely you know, I always wanna be there
Holding your hand
And standing by to catch you when you fall
Seeing you through, in everything you do

I said let me be there in your morning
Let me be there in your night
Let me change whatever's wrong and make it right
Let me take you to that wonderland that only two can share
All I ask you, is let me be there

Watching you grow
And going through the changes in your life
That's how I know, I always wanna to be there
Whenever you feel you need a friend to lean on
Here I am
Whenever you call, you know I'll be there

I said let me be there in your morning
Let me be there in your night
Let me change whatever's wrong and make it right
Let me take you to that wonderland that only two can share
All I ask you, is let me be there

Let me be there in your morning
Let me be there in your night
Let me change whatever's wrong and make it right
Let me take you to that wonderland that only two can share
All I ask you, is let me be there

All I ask you is let me be there

I said let me be there in your morning
Let me be there in your night
Let me change whatever's wrong and make it right
Let me take you to that wonderland that only two can share
All I ask you, is let me be there
All I ask you, is let me be there

He gives and takes away...

Lately the song by Matt Redman has been on my mind. How do you sing Blessed be the name of the Lord, when you are going through a period of loss? Also, I am the type of person who likes to be in control, and when God takes things away I feel very "out of control". Yes, I know that in the very essence of the word "LORD" I am saying I am giving Him control, but I struggle with the thought and the action of actually doing that.

At cellgroup on Friday I asked if the other "faithful" ones would pray for me about this problem I have with surrendering to God.

This morning I was woken by my 6 year old at 4am - eeek - I didn't even know the hour existed ;). She quickly went to sleep, but I felt bothered, more than that, upset, alone, sad, used up (all nothing to do with my daughter). I got up and tried reading my bible, what else can one do with tears streaming down their faces and with the family all dead asleep. With no great revelation from there, I proceeded back to bed, still crying... it was then that a country and western song went through my head ( I hate c & w, by the way) and I felt God's presence fill my mind. I am going to see if I can find the words to it on the web, it was sooooo appropriate to how I have been feeling. If we just let God in to our existance, we can accomplish anything that seems difficult, He will help us, guide us, lead us.

He is GOOD, and I now feel able to sing blessed be HIS name, even when He gives and takes away, He knows what is best for me! Do you know God has a sense of humour, yesterday at church, when I was still struggling with the words of Matt Redman's song, it was on the worship song list - I can just see his smile.... It's a lesson He really want's me to learn, huh!